Free Republic

The only person left who can stop the 1,603-page, $1.1 trillion Speaker John Boehner omnibus spending bill from getting to the floor for a vote is House Rules Committee chairman Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX). If Sessions doesn't kill the bill in the Rules Committee on Wednesday, the bill just may pass the House of Representatives. For Sessions to do that, however, he’d need to very publicly and aggressively cross Boehner and House Appropriations Committee chairman Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY)—something that would be largely unorthodox and very difficult to do, politically. Don’t expect Sessions to kill it, though: He’s a Boehner...

Explanation: What lights up the Flame Nebula? Fifteen hundred light years away towards the constellation of Orion lies a nebula which, from its glow and dark dust lanes, appears, on the left, like a billowing fire. But fire, the rapid acquisition of oxygen, is not what makes this Flame glow. Rather the bright star Alnitak, the easternmost star in the Belt of Orion visible just to the right of the nebula, shines energetic light into the Flame that knocks electrons away from the great clouds of hydrogen gas that reside there. Much of the glow results when the electrons and...

Under heavy pressure by the Dutch left, national government, and the North African immigrants themselves for a rallying cry where Wilders asked a campaign-stop crowd in The Hague if they wanted 'more Moroccans  or 'less Morrocans' in Holland (followed by predictably raucous cheers for the latter), the Dutch politician is fighting back and -per usual- speaking his mind... With the new left-leaning government in charge, they now have the top public prosecutor  attempting to build a case against Geert for 'hate speech', asking the the police to retain and question him, etc. But of course, as a man of deep...

Ted Kennedy's son being investigated for insider trading: Government information about prostate cancer drug was 'passed to clients by firm co-founded by senator's son' An insider trading investigation has been launched into Ted Kennedy Jr's former company. The Marwood Group, a healthcare-focused consulting firm co-founded by Kennedy, received notice from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) this week. The agency's staff officially notified Marwood that it plans to recommend to the full commission charging the company with civil insider trading.

Venezuela is really feeling the pinch from sliding oil prices. Now its bonds are in such bad shape that some investors are treating the country’s default as a near certainty. And they are taking action. How? Well certain banks have started to offer swap contracts that allow investors to fix the amount they can recover on insurance bought against a restructuring of the country’s debt, according to investors. If CDS contracts are triggered, the cheapest Venezuelan bonds trading in the market at that time will be used to determine payouts to protection holders. Those not wanting to take any chances...

An imprisoned man known as the "20th hijacker" in the 9/11 terror attacks is asking a South Florida federal judge for a transfer to the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The request is part of a rambling, handwritten letter filed Wednesday in Miami federal court by Zacarias Moussaoui. He is serving a life prison sentence after pleading guilty in 2005 to conspiring with the Sept. 11 hijackers to kill Americans.

A group of former top-ranking CIA officials disputed a U.S. Senate committee's finding that the agency's interrogation techniques produced no valuable intelligence, saying such work had saved thousands of lives. Former CIA directors George Tenet, Porter Goss and Michael Hayden, along with three ex-deputy directors, wrote in an op-ed article published on Wednesday in the Wall Street Journal that the Senate Intelligence Committee report also was wrong in saying the agency had been deceptive about its work following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

It is curious in a non-Catholic country like ours that the question of who should or shouldn’t be allowed to receive communion has become such a hot topic. Seemingly, this kind of question would be considered inside baseball, simply an intra-church matter. Yet, our secular media is dominated by headlines about what this or that bishop (or Synod of bishops) has to say about whether the Church should deny the Eucharist to the divorced and remarried or pro-abortion politicians.In his interview with Face the Nation’s Norah O’Donnell, Chicago archbishop Blase Cupich was asked to comment on the following issue:When...

Gun control advocates in Congress are looking to revive failed legislation strengthening background check regulations. A handful of Democratic lawmakers said Tuesday they plan to push once again for universal background checks on all gun sales in the new Congress, even though they recognize it will be an uphill battle with Republicans taking majority control. Background check legislation failed to gain traction in the outgoing Congress despite a string of high-profile school shootings that gun control advocates had hoped would turn the political tide in their favor. They say it’s only a matter of time. “When you don’t pass background...

Just before his 1 pm break, El Rushbo reported on an interview he had yesterday with Thomas Sowell, economist, social theorist, political philosopher and author. Sowell told Rush that his biggest fear is that Iran becomes a nuclear power, and attacks the US in some capacity. Sowell believes if Obama is president at the time, he will just surrender to Iran. Stunned, Rush questioned Sowell, who pointed out it only took two bombs for Japan to surrender to the US.

Mr. C. Douglas McMillon President and Chief Executive Officer Walmart Corporate Office Headquarters 702 SW 8th Street Bentonville, AR 72716 Dear Mr. McMillon, This is a happy letter that I'm so pleased to be writing, because it's about a very positive experience I had at one of your stores in the Chicago suburban area on Saturday December 6, 2014, and the experience left me very hopeful about the future of Christmas in America. Like many others, I had been under the impression for a number of years now that Walmart customer service associates were "not allowed" to wish their customers...

“In disregard of a formal complaint documenting violations of Nevada state laws and administrative codes in the “universal background check” initiative, Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller released a “notice of sufficiency of petition” on December 8, 2014.

Behold the fact that Al Gore, Barack Obama, NASA bureaucrats, and the entire U.N.-IPCC gaggle of “global warming” alarmists are busy demonizing former NASA and White House space sciences expert Dr. John Casey. For what? For daring to issue a 164-page scientific report – called “Dark Winter” – that forecasts several decades of dangerous global cooling instead of warming. Because of the significance of the issues in dispute, these critics of Dr. Casey and of other alleged “doubters” and “skeptics” like him deserve a correct name for their worldwide, U.N.-based climate-control organization – which is engaged in a frantic quest...

Interesting argument!

At least 16 women have accused Bill Cosby of sexual assault, and in many cases their stories are eerily similar: The women claim the comedian gave them some pills and proceeded to assault them. But one woman, Dr. Charlotte Laws, claims her friend had a long-running affair with Cosby in the early ‘80s and was drugged by him, too, even though they were already in a consensual sexual relationship. “[My friend] came to me and was distraught and said he had drugged her and had sex with her, and she said ‘it’s not like I would have said no to...

Featured Term selected at random:CALIFORNIA MISSIONS The parish centers established among the American Indians by Catholic missionaries from Spain. Three sets of missions were founded, in sequence, by the Jesuits and Dominicans in Lower California (now Mexico), and by the Franciscans in Upper California (now the United States). The Jesuit missions and the years of their foundation, beginning from south to north, were: San José del Cabo (1730); Santiago de las Coras (1721); San Juan de Ligní (1705); Nuestra Señora de los Dolores del Sur (1721); Nuestra Señora del Pilar (1720); Santa Rosa or Todos Santos (1733); San Luis Gonzaga...

An electrical engineer from upstate New York has been fined $5,000 and sentenced to 180 hours of community service for accusing his boss of spying for another country. […] Prosecutors say the 39-year-old (Ryan Lechter of Endicott) wrote an anonymous letter to the Defense Security Service in March 2012 accusing his boss at BAE Systems, a defense contractor, of being “foreign intelligence,” which they say means spying. …

BEIJING (AFP) - China on Wednesday urged the United States to "correct its ways" after a damning US Senate report detailed use of torture by the CIA. "China has consistently opposed torture," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a regular briefing. "We believe the US side should reflect upon itself, correct its ways and earnestly respect and abide by the rules of international conventions." Rights groups say China's own justice system is riddled with abuses and that it is not uncommon for confessions to be extracted through torture. Beijing says it attaches great importance to human rights and that...

On Wednesday, Brent crude broke $64 a barrel while WTI crude broke $61 for the first time since 2009. Both benchmark oil indexes were down more than 4%. Brent got as low as $63.72. WTI got as low as $60.55. Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/oil-prices-drop-december-10-2014-12#ixzz3LW4F7cMt

The above flyer was being handed out to local businesses in Alexandria Virginia  recently.   A VCDL member observed it and was able to take a picture of the flyer, with the cooperation of the local business owner.  From an VCDL email: The flyer particularly endangers 18 to 20 year olds as it incorrectly tells a store owner that if they see someone under 21-years-old with a handgun on their hip, that is illegal! That is NOT true and having the police show up on a bogus “man with a gun” call endangers everyone unnecessarily. The flyer also makes these...